Rod Amis - Unbound

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NEW ORLEANS - 5 May, 2002: "The Story Du Jour." That's the phrase used in these pages for the headline that every organ in the Mouthpiece Media obsesses on for weeks. The pile-on, drumbeat affect has the result of nearly drowning out all other news stories --no matter how important. If you've lived in America (or watched CNN television) during the past few years, you've seen the trend: OJ, Monica, Anthrax, Catholic Priests.

When I hear complaints about Fox News et alia, I'm tempted to ask: "If you know they're spin organs and McNews, why don't you show more support for others sources that might provide a bit more balance: the MediaChannel, Alternet, Utne or.. ehm... G21? Why don't you tell your friends we could use their patronage?"

But I keep silent.

It's easy to feel doubly cursed. It is bad enough that I am the type of person cursed to have an "interesting" life, now I must also endure living in interesting times. Someone in ancient China is laughing at me.

Sal, who I've know for over twenty years, tells me over the telephone that I should not take the troubles and trends of the world so seriously. He says that I should feel fortunate to live in the United States, forget the evils and crimes, and just enjoy the benefits. My jaw drops. I never imagined that we had moved so far apart philosophically. I see now that he must consider me an odd bird indeed.

He laughs and reminds me that I have always been a political animal. "I remember you trying to get me to be more politically active years ago," he says. "Even then I thought, why bother?"

Even among my closest friends, I understand, I have failed to convey the message that everything -- everything -- we do is, ultimately, political. Not bothering hands the power of determination (of our own lives and those of our friends) to that minority of people that does bother. We call them the power elite. We dance to their tunes.

One manifestation of those tunes is The Story Du Jour. Right now they would rather have you talk about Catholic priests around the metaphorical water cooler instead of talk about elections, whether in the United States or elsewhere in the world.

Talk about elections this year might lead to your talking about the stagnant world economy, your own well-being.

I can't think of an incumbent government anywhere that wants you to talk about economics right now. The last thing they want you to talk about, for example, is an issue like the implosion of the Argentine economy or the $141 billion in debt that that country defaulted on or how the next IMF bailout will impact the world economy. (In case you missed this one, banks were closed in Argentina. The Argentine peso, which was tied one-to-one to the U.S. dollar, has been devaluated 70% by world currency markets.)

But nobody wants to read economic news. It's prosaic, people who bring up economic issues are accused of being tendentious. You'll feel it in your pocketbook soon enough and you just won't know why. You certainly won't be encouraged by the Mouthpiece Media to consider these kinds of complex issues. Why bother?

Foreign Relations

I have to assume that people come to this magazine because they are curious beyond the Story du Jour. Many of you, like many of us writing here, have foreign relations. You have family, friends, lovers in countries other than the United States and thus a vested interest in keeping abreast of news beyond these oceans. Meanwhile, you take the know-nothing jingoism of some of your friends and co-workers here in America with fear, pity, horror, anger, or some mixture of these emotions.

As contributor JAMIE MENUTIS wrote in these pages, one of the more troubling phenom is the tendency "...to guide us into black and white type of thinking.." exhibited by both media and political leaders here in the United States. Most thinking people accept that greys do exist, especially as regard policy questions. Yet, from the late Cold War ranting of the people like Jean Kirkpatrick during the Reagan administration, to His Fraudulency's declaration to the world that "You are either with us or you are with the terrorists..." Americans have been routinely fed either/or propositions -- especially in foreign relations. This simplistic approach to policy and relationships leads to stances like that taken by the Reaganistas under Kirkpatrick's tutelage making the claim that "traditional" autocracies like those of the Shah and Somoza should be considered our friends and open to a slow liberalizing evolution (since their people have already grown use to their form of oppression.) Meanwhile, this ideological scenario dictated, revolutionary movements should always be considered terroristic precursors of a violent change that is unfriendly to American interests and must lead to the abuses of totalitarianism. It was that simple for the Cold Warriors. Things were either black or white. Either you supported the expanse of foreign investment and were a friend of the United States or you were a Communist-inspired terrorist. No other possibilities were possible.

Things appear to be that simple for the Bush regime, too, judging by the pronouncements of His Fraudulency and other members of the junta. It is beyond comprehension for this administration that people in demonstrations for change, whether they be anti-globalists or citizens of Myanmar, might have legitimate social grievances and might not be enemies of the advance of our vision of "civilization" being pushed at the nosecone of a Cruise missile.

Along with the Story Du Jour, after all, come the parrotted Clichés Du Jour, made possible by the instant analysis of the Mouthpiece Media:

• weapons of mass destruction
• Muslim extremists
• "Why do they hate us?"
• a threat to our civilization and our way of life
• Palestinean militants

The list goes on. We could probably make a parlor game of identifying the next Cliché Du Jour, if we get bored of an evening.

But that would trivialize the central point of this consideration: foreign relations demand historical perspective, subtle speech, cultural sensitivity and a grasp of geographical interdependencies --- all traits which His Fraudulency woefully lacks.

Not that one can for an instant claim that Dollar Bill and his administration were any subtler, despite Clinton's vaunted wonkishness (ding! MM Cliché Du Jour Emeritus), his ham-handed handling of the true situation in the Balkans, his failure to acknowledge that the KLA were indeed terrorists supported by Albanian drug lords; his bumbling administration of the re-devastation of Haiti; maladroit response to the changing situation in Russia, all show him as paltry a steward in the foreign policy arena.

It's quarter past time that those Americans still brave enough to be civically engaged re-opened public policy debate, and foreign relations is one area of policy that even the most isolationist among us are finally willing to admit must be on the agenda. It does matter what happens to people in "BumFuck Egypt", contrary to the Know-Nothing joke's denial. New York and Washington's experiences have driven that point home.

The Last Word on New Orleans

1 MAY, 2002 - I was wrong about New Orleans. I came here because of the belief that this was the least American city I could find in the USA. Nothing is further from the truth.

Today is the international celebration honoring workers around the world. As such, it will probably also be a day of international protests, as screwed workers around the world try to make their (cash-)weak voices heard. Too bad they won't be heard over the orchestral crescendo of global corporate capital. Once again money will talk and bullshit walks will be made through the capitals of the world by people naive enough to believe that money and violence aren't bedfellows in the administration of social "stability."

May Day gets little notice in the United States as this is a country that celebrates bosses instead of workers. Not one person I know here in New Orleans mentions May Day. I am not surprised in a city locked in the plantation mentality. Workers here are either ridiculed or mercilessly exploited. What charm there is to this city has nothing to do with its labor market environment.

Perhaps that explains why this is the first city I've encountered for which I've developed a deep, visceral antipathy. I have loved many cities. A few have left me unmoved -- like Baltimore, locked as it is in its "second-tier" inferiority complex -- but none have provoked the sense of disdain that New Orleans has engendered in me.

This sense of disdain comes from the parasitical nature of the people who live here and the people who seem most drawn to the place. The native New Orleanians I've discovered -- while all-too-willing to carp about tourists and transplants, the way people despoil their city by doing things they'd dare not do anywhere else -- concomittently whine when those same (despised) people fail to appear in sufficient numbers to support the lifestyles the natives would like to enjoy. They forget, conveniently, that the only life-blood this city has, economically, is tourism. It's the attitudinal equivalent of biting the hand that feeds you.

The transplants, who emigrated here for the laxidaisical, amoral ambiance of the place whine because money is so hard to come by here. Most employers act more like they are dealing with indentured servants at best and field niggers at worst. What did they expect?

LISTEN: The first month I lived here was fraught with adventure because my then-roommate, Matt's, boss went through a period of giving him rubber paychecks. She works for a well-known real estate agency and was having a slow patch. Right now it's happening again. Matt doesn't quit his job -- despite the uncertainty of his income -- because his boss allows him to skip work days when he's too hung over from spending what little he makes in the local bars.

Carlos, my now-roommate, is going to school for a post-grad degree and working for a local coffee shop chain. Part of his compensation comes from tips that the workers at his unit divide equally. The managers collect the tips for the workers. Carlos has told me that the managers tend to be lax in the collection process and often leave the tip jar unattended. It developed recently that someone (there is no indication of who) "borrowed" $80 from the tip jar. No determination has been made to-date of how the situation will be resolved.

New Orleanians are the first to admit that they live in a grossly dysfunctional city. (ACTUAL BUMPER STICKER: "New Orleans: Proud to Crawl It Home".) At the same time, they are too lazy or too stubborn to do anything about treating their multiple dysfunctions. (ACTUAL BUMPER STICKER in support of Edwin Edwards, indicted former governor of Louisiana: "Re-Elect The Crook") While ranking among the poorest, least educated (and therefore most illiterate), lowest paid people in the United States, they whine about all the educated, skilled young people who flee this city and state like bats escaping hell. But they also boast: "We ain't chere because we haftah be, we're here because we want to be!" This could well be the birthplace of cognitive dissonance.

A common Bourbon Street hustle run on tourists goes like this: "Hey! Hey! I'll betcha $10 I can tell you where you got them shoes/" "Okay, it's a bet." "You got them shoes on yo' feet!"

Sure, you might retort, all of this might be true of slackers, coffee shop workers and street hustlers, but not everybody in New Orleans. Given. Not everyone. But recall that I was recently working for the Karnos, one of the wealthier families in this town, reputed to own about half the French Quarter. My boss was President of the Bourbon Street Merchants Association. IF anyone should represent a more enlightened and practical attitude, let alone progressive, you would think these established members of New Orleans society would do so. You would be wrong.

• Thy thrive on exploiting both the tourist trade and the anxious local labor force. My boss used to take pride in the reputation he had for throwing plates at employees in restaurants they owned to demonstrate his pique. Tasks I was asked to complete, setting up automated systems, were indicated to be meant to aid in eliminating people "on my list."
• Considering the financial stability of the company's various enterprises, you might think they would be able and inclined to offer their employees benefits like paid holidays or -- at very minimum -- throw an office picnic or holiday party. Guess again. No and no.

Need I say more?

New Orleanians pride themselves on not being like the rest of America. Nonetheless, you can't move in this city without running into corporate chains. Not just Harrah's and Bally's, either. They are pushing to build a new Wal-Mart here in town, folks. (There's already one in the suburbs.) Barnes & Noble are here. So are Tower, Virgin, Best Buy and CompUSA. McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's are festooned along Canal Street, the main drag of the town, the gateway to the French Quarter. Popeye's fried chicken is on nearly every other corner. The Tribune company has a duopoly; they own the only major daily newspaper and a local network television station. Which could lead one to the conclusion that New Orleans exemplifies the very worst of America: monopolistic concentration of wealth and ownership, ignorance, arrogance, tacky glitz, mean-spirited parasitism and exploitaton.

But hey! That's the New Orleans Way.

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THINGS I'LL SEEK THIS WEEK

1. The favor of the gods.

2. A "well-turned ankle."

3. The path to the next station of my hejira.

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Thanks for coming back this week.

"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod

ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote Web issues for MethodFive.com's Hyper newsletter.

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appeared both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

This year he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. (Think: The Boy.) Oh yeah, Rod's designing Web sites for other people. And he's the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. In his spare time, he chases women.

Rod lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now. He wants to live somewhere civilized when he grows up. Wish him Luck.

He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.

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